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E
ducational Resources Center organizes every year an
extensive program of professional development activities
based on curricular and instructional initiatives that are
newly introduced at I.C. Many of those activities are held on
campus and run by I.C. leading teachers and administrators,
resource persons from neighboring universities, or consultants
from abroad.
If visitors had entered my classroom during an ERC work-
shop this year, they would have had the
impression of seeing a beehive of teachers
coming and going, selecting appropriate
fabrics of all colors for their play, shells,
buttons, paper plates, sponges, pearls, rib-
bons, Styrofoam, socks, cardboard. We
were in the midst of our “Puppetry: a
Means of Communication and Dialogue”
workshop. The purpose was to let the par-
ticipants experience how puppets are an
extension of the self. Puppets can be a
powerful tool in the classroom for both
teachers and students and can be used for
discovery and exploring.
The participants chose finger puppets or
hand puppets that I had provided from
home and from the Preschool, and intro-
duced themselves. Each teacher acted out
the personage of the puppet she was holding while intro-
ducing herself. The teachers were then divided into three
groups of four people in each. Their first task was to
design finger puppets and then create a script for circle
time activities. Each group chose a different area; one
group took the Calendar, designed the puppets and cre-
ated a song of how to remind children of the days of the
week; another group created a scene about the weather
and another about attendance.
The teachers were having fun and were enthusiastic.
When ready, participants hid behind the puppet house
that I had prepared and with a lot of humor, the different
scenes were acted out. The rest of the par-
ticipants sat facing the puppet house,
attended the show and clapped enthusi-
astically to the performers.
As puppets play an important educational
role in the classroom and can contribute
greatly to many aspects of the child’s learn-
ing, the next task that I had assigned was
to create a story about a teaching concept
using hand puppets. Again, the teachers
excelled in their creations and performanc-
es. The greatest rewarding remark I
received at the end of the session was said
by one of the participants who herself is a
teacher of drama in her school to her col-
leagues: “Please, don’t go! I know it is
already time to leave home. But we have
not finished designing our puppets and
presenting it to the other teachers”.
Samia Boulad
is the Head of the Art dept at IC and conducts
workshops to teachers in Art, its concepts and Assessment in
Art at private and public schools around the country.
LET THE PUPPETS TALK:
AN ERC WORKSHOP
4
The current president of IC graduated
after you did.
4
You bump into your classmates and they
have graying hair.
4
You stop having a crush on that hot
teacher.
4
The students suddenly look so young.
4
You flip immediately to the back pages of
the newsletter to check news of your
classmates.
4
You are relegated to the Alumni Office
when visiting IC.
4
Walking through campus teachers make
eye contact with you – as the only other
adult - and smile.
4
As you stroll, students call you “miss” or
“istath”.
4
You see the latest Torch and realize in dis-
may that you’re not in it.
4
The manakish at the cafeteria don’t look so
good anymore.
4
You yearn to return to good old days of IC.
4
You can’t wait for the latest IC newsletter
to come out!
YOU KNOW YOU’RE AN ALUMNI WHEN: